Friðheimar

Eating in a greenhouse in Reykholt 

May contain traces of advertisement.*

A visit to the greenhouse and restaurant Friðheimar is a very special experience in Iceland:

Here, right on the Golden Circle, you can enjoy very tasty, freshly harvested tomato dishes in the middle of a greenhouse. The menu is clear but delicious - and everything is prepared with their own tomatoes, from homemade tomato soup to other main courses to dessert and drinks. Would you like a tomato beer? Here you can get it! In addition, you can learn everything about tomato cultivation with geothermal energy and stock up on delicious specialties for your onward journey.

We had already eaten here in the fall of 2016 - and were very happy when now we were invited to visit the greenhouse again.

The history of Friðheimar

Friðheimar is owned by Knútur Rafn Ármann and Helena Hermundardóttir. He is an agronomist, she studied horticulture. As early as 1995, they bought the Friðheimar farm in Reykholt. A horticultural business had been located here for around 50 years. The then vacant farm offered Knútur and Helena the perfect conditions to start their own business and combine her passion for horticulture and his passion for horse breeding.

They have five children, all of whom work in agriculture. Her eldest daughter Dóróthea had invited us to Friðheimar.

Right on the Golden Circle 

Friðheimar farm is located in Reykholt, on road 35 from Selfoss to the geyser and Gullfoss, about 20 km before the geyser.

There is a geothermal area here and a lot of fruit, vegetables and flowers are grown in the numerous greenhouses in the village. The village has a "steam geyser" (gufugoshver), which the inhabitants of the village also use as a communal oven. In the meantime, around 300 inhabitants live in Reykholt. 

View over Reykholt

Directly from road 35, the entrance to Friðheimar branches off in the village. From the large parking lot at the front of the road you walk a few steps to the greenhouse, past the riding arena and the horse stable.

Horse breeding in Friðheimar

The horse centre here exists since a good 15 years. The stable can accommodate 20 horses.

The riding arena offers a private horse show for groups in the summer (advance booking required). There is room for up to 120 spectators in the stands. 

In Friðheimar, 20,000 tomato plants grow on an area of around 10,000 m²

When Knútur and Helena bought Friðheimar in 1995, there were two old greenhouses and a large, vacant house. At first they grew tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers here, but in 2002 they specialized in growing tomatoes.

They have renewed and modernized the old greenhouses and over time more and more modern greenhouses have been added.

The tomatoes are produced for the Icelandic market. They go to restaurants as well as for sale in supermarkets.

Four different varieties of tomatoes are grown in Friðheimar: 

Traditional tomatoes, plum tomatoes (also known as egg or Roma tomatoes), heirloom tomatoes (sweetish beef tomatoes, a historical variety) and piccolo tomatoes. By the way, Friðheimar is the only horticultural company in Iceland that grows piccolo tomatoes. 

Year-round cultivation of tomatoes

From one of the employees we got a short, informative lecture about the processes of tomato cultivation in Friðheimar.

The tomato seeds are planted here in the nursery and raised there for the first six weeks. When they bloom for the first time, the plants are allowed to move to the greenhouses. After about eight weeks, the first tomatoes on the young plants turn red.

In Friðheimar's greenhouses, the young plants are placed between the old plants, so both grow next to each other and when the last tomatoes on the old plants are ripe, you can harvest the first tomatoes on the young plants. Thus, tomatoes can be harvested here all year round. 

The pollination of the tomato plants in Friðheimar is the responsibility of animal employees, namely bumblebees from Holland.

Around 600 bumblebees are out and about in the greenhouses every day. Bumblebees are particularly efficient pollinators. With their flapping wings, they cause the pollen containers of the flowers to vibrate, so that the pollen is "shaken out" and attaches itself like small clouds to the hairy body of the bumblebees. In this way, the animals can spread the pollen particularly efficiently.

Did you know that the bumblebees actually leave small "footprints" when pollinating the plants, so that the experienced staff can see which plants have already been pollinated and which have not..? When the footprints become less, you can see that it is time to order the next generation of bumblebees. 

Animal employees are also responsible for pest control: The bright green predatory bug "Macrolophus Pygmaeus", which is about 3 mm (1/8 inch) in size, sucks out the eggs of flies, spiders, aphids or moths and thus very effectively prevents pests.

Every day approx. 2 tons of tomatoes

IIn Friðheimar, around 2 tonnes of ripe tomatoes are harvested per day, which is about 740 tonnes of tomatoes per year.

Just to get an idea:

A piccolo tomato from Friðheimar weighs about 15 g (1/2 oz.) on average (at least that's what my kitchen scale says). If only piccolo tomatoes were harvested in Friðheimar, that would be about 135,000 pieces a day. Iceland has around 390,000 inhabitants - so mathematically every inhabitant could eat a piccolo tomato from Friðheimar every third day. 

The greenhouses are technically state-of-the-art. Helena and Knútur can retrieve all data online and, if necessary, make adjustments via mobile phone. 

The restaurant in the greenhouse

In Friðheimar, everything in the greenhouses revolves around tomatoes - including food, of course.

You sit comfortably in the greenhouse at large, bright tables with a view of the long rows of tomatoes that are grown and irrigated here. 

By the way, there are small pots of fresh basil on all tables, which is also grown here in the greenhouse. A small pair of scissors is attached to each pot, with which you can cut off your herbs while eating and add them to your food. It really doesn't get any fresher than this - and it looks pretty too! 

The speciality of the house is the homemade tomato soup from the buffet, served with various freshly baked breads, accompanied by butter, sour cream and cucumber salsa.  

The tomato soup with bread, butter and salsa currently costs 2,960 ISK, the equivalent of just under 20 € or 22 $. However, you can get a second helping from the soup and bread.

You can also order skewers with the soup - such a cheese skewer with different cheeses and tomatoes, as I had it here, currently costs 790 ISK (about 5 € / 6 $). Optionally, there is also a vegetable skewer for the same price or (for about 8 € / 9 $) a skewer with chicken or seafood.

The kitchen has even more to offer besides the delicious tomato soup, as a look at the menu shows. 

My husband had opted for heirloom tomatoes with burrata - a dish made with the renowned heirloom tomatoes from the greenhouse here and handmade Icelandic burrata cheese, served with basil olive oil and coarse sea salt (currently costs 3,080 ISK, i.e. a good 20 € / 22 $). Burrata is a special form of mozzarella, but much creamier in the middle. The tomatoes were wonderfully spicy and with the soft cheese, the oil, the fresh basil and the coarse sea salt, we really enjoyed it.

We definitely enjoyed our meal!

As drinks, in addition to the fresh water from the carafe, we had  a Bloody Mary with homemade tomato juice with some vodka and a few drops of tabasco (for about 14 € / 15 $ - alcohol is expensive in Iceland!), served with salt, pepper and tabasco for seasoning, and a Healthy Mary with homemade green tomato juice, lime, honey and ginger (for the equivalent of just under 9 € / 10 $). Definitely an interesting experience! 

For dessert we had a portion of Ostakaka (cheesecake) with a  very tasty topping of tomato jam (with green tomatoes, cinnamon and lime) for 1,780 ISK (about 12 € / 13 $), stylishly served in a small flower pot, ...

... and a plate with 3 scoops of Friðheimar sorbet, in different varieties:  one cucumber, mint and lime, one red tomato and basil and one green tomato with rosemary. The ice cream was created in collaboration with the ice cream specialists of the Icelandic organic ice cream factory Skubb. By the way, my personal favorite was the rosemary tomato ice cream! 

After a last look at the cozy bar in the greenhouse, we said goodbye, it was already past four and the restaurant is open from 12 to 4 p.m.. 

In addition to the basil plants for the tables for seasoning, the geraniums for the decoration of the restaurant are also grown in the greenhouses on site in Reykholt. Here in the room next to the bar the basil grows, but the nice employee had already told us that during the tour.

Litla Tómatbúðin 

In the Little Tomato Shop at the entrance you can also buy many of the delicious tomato specialties that chef Jón has developed especially for Friðheimar, from bottled tomato soup to various sauces, salsa, chutney and jams to pickled tomatoes, drinks and spice mixes to gift packages and vouchers. (By the way, Tómatbúð also provides an online shop for some years already.) 

I took a look into the ice chest because I would have loved to take a pack of rosemary-tomato ice cream with me for our visit the next day. But apparently this variety doesn't just taste particularly good to me - this ice cream of all things was unfortunately sold out. But I'm sure I'll come back to Friðheimar for shopping!

In front of the entrance we said goodbye to Dóróthea and her family. Meanwhile, her little boy was happily playing on the floor with a small plastic truck. When the truck went too sharply into the curve, the whole load rolled out - lots of little red tomatoes. 

*Legal note:

Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.  

[Translated from here.]